1. Technical Field
The present application relates generally to an improved data processing system and method. More specifically, the present application is directed to a method, apparatus, and computer program product to manage battery needs in a portable device.
2. Description of Related Art
Portable devices are becoming pervasive in today's society. Personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop computers, smart phones, cell phones, handheld computer devices, portable digital video disc (DVD) players, and portable digital media players are examples of portable, mobile devices that are commonly in use by many people. These devices may be used for business or pleasure; however, many of the devices are multi-purpose. For example, a PDA phone may be used for keeping track of meetings, sending electronic mail messages, playing games, making telephone calls, and listening to music.
It is not uncommon today for a person to cancel his or her landline telephone service and switch to using a cell phone as the primary phone service. When an employee is traveling, a cell phone is usually the primary phone used for conference calls and personal calls. The caveat to cell phone usage is that battery life becomes critical to the reliability of the cell phone for primary use. A user may suddenly have an important call dropped due to poor management of battery life.
Other portable devices suffer from the same limitations due to their reliance on battery power. A traveler may begin watching a movie on a laptop computer and have the battery die before the movie is over. A user may use a Web enabled cell phone to view Web pages and be left with no battery life to make a critical phone call.
Cell phones and other portable devices typically have a battery level gauge. However, the user is left to manage the battery life while using the device. The battery level gauge typically uses a primitive graphical indicator to represent remaining battery life. The user must guess whether one out of four bars in the battery indicator is enough battery life to support a 45-minute conference call, for example. Furthermore, a user of a portable device may not be aware of the battery draining features and functions of a device. A typical user may not be aware of how much power is consumed when viewing Web pages on a cell phone, for instance. Therefore, lack of knowledge by the user and primitive battery level indicators result in poor management of battery life for portable devices.